My String Quilts

Friday, June 19, 2015

What's Happening...or not Happening!

Oh my! It has been 17 days since my last blogpost. Oh my! I've been a bit bummed lately and don't have much to show. It's my own fault. I started to do the free motion quilting on my latest quilt and I overdid it. Really overdid it. I spent an entire evening swirling away and not paying attention to how long I was spending. I was using my smaller Pfaff Ambition 1.0 as my Pfaff QE 4.0 is sick and in the shop again. The smaller throat space on the Ambition makes it more strenuous to manipulate a quilt and the next day was the proof. I couldn't lift my arm and the pain was sickening. It took about a week and a half for my arm to calm down back to normal (almost) . I have been sewing just little bits here and there and today was the first time that I got back to doing some FMQing, just for a few minutes. It will be fine in a day or so but I have learned my lesson. When I teach classes in FMQ, I stress to my students...Take a break...don't overdo it...and look what I go and do...This photo shows about half of what I have done on this quilt so far. I will take my time to finish up the rest. There is no rush really...I am making this for my lovely little guild's quilt show in October. More details on that soon.

This pattern is called "Spiced Chai Quilt" designed by Katie Clark Blakesley from the book "Vintage Quilt Revival" . I am drawn to patterns that alter traditional block layouts so this book was a perfect choice for me. I love the Tea Leaf block and have used it in a few of my traditional quilts so when I saw this pattern I fell in love with it and just had to make it. It was perfect to showcase my treasured "Handcrafted" by Alison Glass and also use up some larger chunks of grey Konas that I had kicking around. They go so nicely with the Kona white. I managed to do some straighline quilting in free motion and finish up this pillow that will be sent off to Edmonton as part of my guild's Pillow Swap with the Edmonton Modern Quilt Guild. I made it from some scraps of low volume prints and Kona Graphite. I was going for a clean, modern look with a bit of scrappiness.

I always like to use a selvedge on the back of my pillows.

So, as you can see, I haven't been sewing up my usual storm but hopefully that will change soon. I have so much in my head that needs to get out! My niece Katherine, who got married last summer, is having a baby in November so I need to start making baby stuff. Very excited about this! I received this cute little postcard from Sunny in Maryland as part of Sheila's Postcard Swap. I think it will be a bit longer before we can put our toes in the sand here! I can't show you the one I made for her because I forgot to take a shot of it. darn. Hopefully Sunny will post a picture of it and I can steal it from her! Thanks for being my partner Sunny and thanks to Sheila for organizing this great swap. It was fun!

Oh I feel for you , I know how painful that can be which is why I don't like machine quilting all that much . Hope it settles down for you , maybe a massage would help . Love the pillow , very modern and scrappy ! Great postcard from Sunny , just heard both of mine have arrived , yeah .

Sorry to hear about your free motion madness, hopefully you'll be back to full strength soon. Love the quilting you've been doing and also your cushion is very cool - love the selvedge trick on the back - I'll have to remember that one! Cute postcard from Sunny too - looking forward to seeing what you sent away!

No wonder you got carried away with the quilting Linda. Those swirls and pebbles looks like so much fun. Hope your arm recovers 100 percent very soon,Gosh do I love that pillow! And your postcard partner did a great job.

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About me

Hi! Welcome to my quilting blog. My name is Linda and I live in beautiful Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. I have three adult children and have been married to my amazing husband, Mike, for the past 40 years. My passion in life is my family and my quilting.